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Over the course of his early life, Cistler spent much of his time getting into trouble, much to the frustration of his father. At age 24, Cistler had three black belts in martial arts traditions and was relatively well known by the people of the Terran Dominion, but spent a great deal of his time womanizing. Aldeo Cistler, dissatisfied with his son's lot in life, had him sent to the Ghost Academy to "make a man out of him", ignoring the rule that he needed a PI of at least 5 in order to be considered (his PI was only 4.5).

Director Kevin Bick and Superintendent Sarco Angelini were both upset but resolved to make the best of the situation. They would assign him to Gabriel Tosh's under-strength Team Blue for training and hoped he would make a mistake and be washed out.

Preceptor Lagdamen introduced Cistler to Tosh, pointing out his background, lack of commitment and low psionic index. Cistler brushed off Tosh's greeting and immediately went looking for romantic conquests.

In his first training mission, he and the rest of Team Blue had to negotiate a darkened maze. The team were supposed to create a mental map so they could support each other and reach the objective. Cistler either wouldn't or couldn't contribute to the map; while he was skilled enough at martial arts to disable combat training robots, he received a test rating of only 20%.

Cistler in Hartley's class

In Sergeant Hartley's martial arts class, Cistler impressed him with his endurance. He and Tosh (another high scorer) sparred for a minute, with Cistler coming out ahead. However, Hartley beat him to the ground and then demanded he follow instructions to get back up.[1]

At the lunchroom, Aal Cistler met Kath Toom and Gabriel Tosh. He immediately began to hit on the former, but she coolly rebuffed his efforts, pointing out that, as the daughter of a vice president of the Kal-Bryant Mining Conglomerate, she wasn't impressed by him. She went on to mock him, saying he wouldn't last at the Academy, and even if he did he would undergo a memory wipe. However, during the mockery, she revealed that teammate Lio Travski's uncle worked at the Conglomerate as a computer technician. After Toom left, Tosh criticized him on "carrying his daddy's luggage" and told him that all students get wiped. Cistler stormed out.

After another training session, he noted fellow teammate Lio Travski's poor performance, and recognized the effects of hab addiction. He offered Travski drugs in exchange for getting his uncle to sabotage its computer systems and expose Sector 9. Mr. Toom fell under investigation by the Treasury Ministry. Cistler took to mocking Kath Toom's father in his interactions with her. Toom, in turn, continued to mock him.

Cistler provided Travski with a high dose of turk, disguising it as hab. Travski promptly injected himself with it.

Team Blue, led by Gabriel Tosh, took part in the Valerian hostage taking training scenario. Cistler wasn't able to telepathically project thoughts to the other members, prompting Toom's mockery. He teamed up with Nova Terra, a powerful telekinetic, and the two sneaked into the planet-hopper. Cistler contributed to the team's eventual victory by using his martial arts skills on the unvisored faces of their marine opponents. However, Terra had to counsel him not to strike ahead of Tosh's plan. At the end, Travski fell into a coma due to his turk overdose.

Cistler is expelled.

Cistler was washed out due to drug trafficking, but would be sent to Korhal due to his father's influence rather than suffering punishment. He threatened Mr. Toom as he was taken out, and even sent Kath Toom a communique where he bragged how his father'sdepartment was investigating her father.

Not long afterwards, Cistler returned to plague the Academy, appearing in a documentary called I Was Framed, where he claimed the Ghost Academy staff never gave him a fair chance. UNN personality E. B. James used the documentary to media-ambush Director Bick.

Eventually Cistler returned to the Academy, backed up by his father and three senators. Bick had no choice but to let him in. Cistler requested to join Team Red (thus forcing off Team Red member Dori Koogler). While there, his team faced off against his former "friends" in Team Blue in a martial arts class. He challenged Kath Toom to a match and mockingly beat her.

Cistler quickly formed an alliance with Dylanna Okyl, who hated Nova Terra. Nova caught the two of them plotting. They mocked her, and Cistler promised revenge against her. The Team Red pair would seek revenge in a training simulation. Most of Team Red would focus on Nova, pinning her down until Okyl could take her on one-on-one. Meanwhile, Lio Travski, having been neurally resocialized and detoxed of his drug addiction, rejoined Team Blue. He displayed increased confidence, although his teammates felt something was wrong.

Cistler and Okyl in the scenario

During the scenario, two of Team Blue's members were taken out and Gabriel Tosh tied up, leaving Cistler and Okyl free to pursue Nova by themselves. Okyl fought Nova, but Travski intervened by using his powers to incapacitate Team Red using abandoned SCVs. Cistler promised Travski more hab if he released him, but Travski responded to the offer by punching Cistler in the face and shouting at him.

The simulation was stopped, and the two teams informed they would have to band into a new team and go on a special training mission. Meanwhile, Superintendent Sarco Angelini admitted to using a mild form of neural resocialization on Cistler...[2]

Team Purple was sent on a training mission to The Baker's Dozen aboard the battlecruiserCyrus. While appearing impressive, the ship was undercrewed and undergunned, and hadn't received any retrofits or upgrades since the Battle of Tarsonis one year previously. By using the hypernet, Cistler discovered the ship's commander had a reputation for cowardice for not fighting at the Battle of Tarsonis. When Dylanna Okyl asked how he knew that, he told her she relied on her telepathy too much and he used alternate methods of information gathering.

The team was dispatched to Shi, the fourth planet in the system, in order to rescue a quartet of Old Family heirs. Cistler and Okyl launched a nuclear missile which Nova Terra guided against a zerg hatchery cluster.

Cistler and Okyl hold off the zerg

However, things went badly for Team Purple. They rescued the heirs but had to take shelter in the badly-damaged Cyrus while the zerg swarmed at them from another hatchery cluster. Cistler suggested Nova Terra use her psionic potential to distract the zerg away from the Cyrus by heading to the cluster. The tactic eventually worked, relieving the pressure at the Cyrus. Terra and Gabriel Tosh were able to destroy the cluster, and the battlecruiser was able to return to the Ghost Academy upon repair.

Emperor Arcturus Mengsk was unhappy the heirs were rescued and ordered the team to undergo memory wipes. As a result, Cistler lost his memories of the incident, and was left to believe the mission had been canceled.[3]

Cistler is considered very intelligent, is a skilled martial artist and his psionic abilities (PI 4.5) enable him to read his opponents' body language very well, an asset in hand-to-hand combat. He sometimes uses drugs, such as hab, and claimed he knew people on a senator's staff who could provide him with drugs.[1]

Cistler is skilled at gathering information through non-psionic sources such as the hypernet.[3]